By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

JASMINE Saintil’s dreams are about to take flight.

She is one of 20 people who were sworn-in as Bahamian citizens yesterday.

This milestone will now enable the 22-year-old to fully pursue her passion — becoming a pilot.

“It was hard not having a job, not having an income,” Ms Saintil told reporters yesterday. “I had to find a trade, basically. I had to become a nail tech, a lash tech and that’s not truly what I wanted to be. I want to be a pilot. I’m in pilot school right now and now that I have my passport I’m able to finish it completely.”

This process has been four years in the making for her. To Ms Saintil, formerly a Haitian national, it has been “long overdue”.

“It was hard. It was long. It was frustrating a bit, but you know everything takes time.”

She added: “I’m happy that I got it. So I can get a job and so everything can go smoothly so I can travel.”

Immigration Minister Keith Bell took pictures with The Bahamas’ newest citizens at yesterday’s ceremony. The minister said he anticipates that such events will take place every Thursday, with about 10 to 20 people being sworn in.

He said there is a “significant backlog” of citizenship applications.

“You have a number of persons who have applied. I met a young man who has applied as far back as 2009 and is still waiting, but what happens is they’re missing documents,” Mr Bell said on the sidelines of the ceremony at the Department of Immigration. “Sometimes, they have been born here, but they need documents out of their parents’ country which is sometimes extremely difficult to get. There are a myriad of issues and challenges in terms of ensuring that they get the requisite documents for us to consider their application thoroughly.”

Asked about changes he hoped to make in his new role, Mr Bell noted the most significant change would be digitisation of the department.

“We have to move from a paper system to one which is paperless which would improve our overall efficiency,” he said.

The lengthy process of obtaining citizenship was a challenge to even the most ambitious among the group of young people.

“It was rough. It took long. I applied for it since I was 18,” said new citizen Willem Jerome.

He finally got what he wanted at the age of 21.

“Finally now I got it. Now I can go to BTVI and finish my skills and go forward in life,” he said.

The process took about two years for Leonardo Hidalgo.

“It was quite easy, I mean other than the going back and forth. You know, grabbing my police record and other documents that were required,” the 19-year-old explained.

Although Mr Hidalgo previously held Peruvian nationality, he was born in The Bahamas. He is studying electrical engineering.